Ned K. Johnson, 1932–2003

Abstract

Ned K. Johnson, for many years Curator of Birds at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, died on 11 June 2003. He had served as President of both the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. He was America's foremost authority on the taxonomy and biogeography of the birds of western North America and his research and expertise extended from the field to the museum and into the molecular laboratory. Ned Johnson was born in Reno, Nevada, on 3 November 1932; he grew up in Reno and attended the University of Nevada, graduating in 1954. By that time he was already enamoured of birds and had begun publishing his natural history observations in journals such as Condor and the Great Basin Naturalist. He served with the US Army Medical Service in Germany from 1954 to 1956 and subsequently entered graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley. For his doctoral research, Ned worked on determining species status in sibling species of New World tyrannid flycatchers in the difficult genus Empidonax. His was one of the first studies to involve tape recordings and playback experiments on the breeding grounds. Upon completion of his PhD, Ned was hired as a faculty member at the University of California and its associated Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Ned took up the path of his predecessors, Joseph Grinnell and Alden Miller, the latter his doctoral dissertation advisor. Like them, he felt a deep affection for the fauna, flora and landscapes of the western United States, and especially for those of the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin ranges. At the end of each academic year, he would pack up his truck and spend much of the summer collecting specimens at localities carefully chosen to elucidate taxonomic or biogeographical problems. Ned was also an avid fly fisherman, and so the summers in the mountains gave him the opportunity to pursue this pastime. Ned continued studies of Empidonax and other tyrannid flycatchers throughout his career. More generally, however, he was interested in taxa that were morphologically or vocally differentiated across the western US. He was never a prisoner of the past; as new techniques were developed and shown to be useful, Ned adopted them. Thus, his second monograph on Empidonax in 1980 included multivariate morphometric analyses, a computer-based technique that had not been available at the time of his PhD dissertation. Allozyme studies of intraspecific variation became feasible at about this same time, and Ned incorporated them into his research. This led to the inclusion of liquid nitrogen dewars on his field trips. We both remember his stories of misadventures in South America with authorities confronted with ‘smoking’ nitrogen tanks for the first time. By 1990, mitochondrial DNA studies became feasible and Ned pursued this research for all his favourite groups. Incorporation of molecular techniques led to an interest in higher level systematics, something he had not shown much interest in beforehand. In all these studies Ned made lasting contributions; our knowledge of variation and speciation of the avifauna of western North America was profoundly affected by his unflagging and technologically evolving attention. For his research, Ned was awarded the AOU's Brewster Medal, the highest honour that the society can bestow. In addition to his research, Ned was very active in academic ornithology at local, national and international levels. He taught the undergraduate ornithology course at UC Berkeley throughout his tenure and earned the affection of students with local field trips; in the spring, for example, he required his natural history class to meet before first light at Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills to experience the dawn chorus. Although Ned did not take on large numbers of graduate students, many of those who received their degrees under his guidance also worked on problems in speciation and geographical variation in birds and subsequently went on to occupy major academic and museum positions. Ned took on many leadership roles in American ornithology in addition to serving terms as President of its two major professional organizations. For three decades he was an active force in the AOU's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature – the arbiters of the official Checklist of North American birds. He enjoyed travelling to the International Ornithological Congresses every four years and served as a permanent member of the International Ornithological Committee. At meetings he was gregarious and especially complimentary to students and beginning ornithologists; consequently, his friendships extended to every generation of active researchers. Ned was an outstanding figure in twentieth century North American ornithology. His legacy includes a coterie of well-respected students, a series of classic papers, and a much-revised understanding of the biogeography and species status of western North American birds.